


Truer Lies

by Victor_SteckerEpps



Category: NCIS
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2011-07-08
Updated: 2011-07-13
Packaged: 2017-10-21 04:20:44
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 4
Words: 2,573
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/220835
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Victor_SteckerEpps/pseuds/Victor_SteckerEpps
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>"Jeanne. Jeanne is the key to all this." He said, his voice quavering as the truth dawned on him. He had finally seen through the web lies.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Prolouge

**Author's Note:**

> So this one of my stories from my Fanfiction account, with a few small edits. I plan on updating one chapter per day, as it is already written, but no promises. I hope everyone likes. Let me me know pretty please with cherries on top?

Present Time

"That isn't your choice to make!" The pain was obvious in his cracking voice.

"You don't get to choose who lives and who dies here!" He continued.

"Yes, I do, Tony." Her voice expressed just as much pain as his.

The bindings holding them to their chairs were cutting off circulation and making their hands numb. He could not help but think of the last time they were held captive together. It was in the desert, the room an exact copy of the one they were sitting in now. He looked at the girl sitting in the chair across from him, so close their knees were almost touching. Almost but not quite.

The room brought back painful memories. He looked into her eyes and could tell her thoughts were on the same path. The man they had trusted, the one who was doing this, had a sick sense of humor.

"No, Ziva. I die or we escape. I told you before, I won't live without you again!"

Tears began to flow down her face, unchecked for the first time since long before her half-brother was killed. The man she loved had all but admitted that he loved her too. But he was afraid of commitment. He had lost so much that he was dedicated to. Jenny, the NCIS family mother. Kate, the long-lost sister. Jeanne, the first true love. He blamed their deaths on himself.

Even when Ziva was sent on the Mossad suicide mission he nearly got himself and his partner killed to get her back. Though the choice to return to Mossad was heres, and hers alone, he still blamed the result on himself. But he succeeded. He saved her. The woman he loved.

They both knew that if one of them were to die, ever, that the other would as well. Their only choice was to escape.

But their captor was smart. Unlike the terrorist in the desert, who had an addiction to Caf-Pows, this man did not. They stopped their argument about who would die first, if even given the choice, at the sound of a dead bolt being pulled back. The single door in the plain, bare room was pushed open and their captor walked in.

He was a man they both knew well. He was tall and dark-skinned, a toothpick in his mouth.

"Leon." They greeted, their voices simultaneously dripping with contempt for him and concern for the other. All respect they had for this man gone.


	2. Chapter 1

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> As promised, one chapter a day. But no comments? Oh well...

Four Months Ago

Special Agent Anthony DiNozzo was leaving the NCIS offieces with his co-workers, Special Agent Timothy McGee and Probationary Agent Ziva David. It was a regualr Friday night and they had just finished a case.

It was pretty straight forward. Marine was cheating on his wife, she gets upset when she walks in on them, kills them, calls the cops, gets arrested.

It was almost ten and the team was headed to their favorite local bar, where they would meet Abby, Ducky, and Palmer.

As they were getting into the elevator, Tony's phone rang. He stepped into the small space and checked the called ID. He recognized the number, but he had not seen it in more than a year.

Seeing surprise and pain flash across her friend's face, Ziva hit the emergency switch, jolting the elevator to a stop. Tony nodded his thanks and answered the phone.

"Jeanne?" He asked quietly.

"Tony..." She screamed into the receiver.

"Tony, you can't trust him! You can't trust-" Jeanne was cut off. Tony could hear another scream and a gunshot as the phone clattered to the floor. Then there was silence.

"Jeanne? Jeanne?" Tony yelled into the phone, again and again to no avail. He wished his gun was not securely locked in his desk. He wanted to shoot something, someone. Destroy something, like the girl who was half his life had been destroyed.

Realizing that he was stuck in an elevator with the other half of his life, and his, for all intents and purposes, adopted younger brother, Tony shouted. He slid down the wall and cried into his designer suit pants.

Ziva looked down at the man she loved, her Mossad training kicking in.

"Call Gibbs, Abby, and Ducky." She snapped at McGee.

"In that order." She added as an after thought.

McGee rushed to do as he was told. There was no telling what Ziva would do when she was angry, especially is it had something to do with Tony. He pulled out his phone.

"Boss,TonygotacallfromJeanneandthensomethinghappenedandZivatoldmeto..." Tim babbled nervously to his boss.

"McGee!" Gibbs yelled.

"Slow down and tell me what happened."

"Boss, Tony got a call from Jeanne and then something happened, I don't know what, but Ziva told me to call you." McGee repeated slowly.

"Get DiNozzo to his desk. I'll be there in five." Gibbs ordered. McGee could hear a car door close and tires screech in the background and Gibbs hung up.

Tim relayed these directions to Ziva quickly before calling Abby.

"Abby,getbacktothelabTonyneedsyou." He spoke quickly, knowing that Abby would understand his rushed words.

"I'llberightthereMcGee." Abby too, spoke fast.

Ziva looked down at Tony, while McGee made the last call, to Ducky.

"Timothy!" Ducky said.

"I will be there as soon as I can. Gibbs called me." Before Tim even got a word out, he had hung up.

Ziva slid down the wall to sit next to Tony, and McGee started the elevator back up to the bullpen. Ziva's face was a mask of caring and compassion and love. BUt her stomach was churning. She was jealous of the girl, who was so clearly not her, who held so much of DiNozzo's heart. She had never seen him cry, and yet here he was ruining his pants. She pulled his head up and forced his red-rimmed eyes to look into hers. He put his head down onto her shoulder and rubbed small circles on his back, until they got to their floor.

"DiNozzo, I need you to come to your desk. I will get you some coffee." And Tony obliged. He did as Ziva asked him and was sitting at his desk, undrunk coffee in front of him, when Gibbs arrived minutes later.

Gibbs slapped the back of DiNozzo's head, getting a glaring look from Ziva, but waking Tony from his stupor.

"Tell me tomorrow DiNozzo." Gibbs ordered when Tony opened his mouth to explain.

Abby walked into the bullpen and, without waiting for permission, she rushed up to Tony and hugged him.

"Whoa, Abby, I'm fine." Tony attempted to convince her and Ducky, who had also just walked in. Abby just Gibbs'-slapped him.

"Don't you dare try and give me that bs DiNozzo." Abby told him.

"Abs, calm down. DiNozzo go home, get some rest. I will see you tomorrow." Gibbs ordered.

"Ziva, you go with him, he needs you." He added once Tony was out of earshot.

Ziva did as she was told, rushing to catch the elevator, and grabbing DiNozzo's hand. The door closed on Tony resting his head against Ziva's shoulder.

As the elevator went down, Gibbs and McGee got to work.

"Find her, Tim." GIbbs commanded, worry entering his voice for the first time that night.


	4. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey everybody! I hope you all like the chapter. Same request as always- comments? Pweety pwease with sugarplums on top?

Four Months Ago

Tony knew he shouldn't be thinking about the thing that was on his mind. But he couldn't get his thoughts away from Ziva.

She was driving him home, occasionally glancing at him out of the corner of her eye, when she thought he wasn't looking. But he was always looking, she came to realize.

Ziva stopped in front of DiNozzo's apartment and walked up to his door. She looked deeply into his eyes, trying to see clear into his heart. Into his soul. But there was nothing for her to see. Nothing more than broken pieces of the calm, collected man he usually was. Maybe Tony would heal, maybe the pieces would come back together, but not without help. And not without sacrifices and choices neither of them wanted to make.

She pulled open Tony's door and he stumbled in, falling against the wall. As he fell, Tony grabbed Ziva's wrist. She fell, or more was pulled, face-first, into his shirt, still wet with his tears. She stayed there for a minute, taking in the scent of him. Tony lifted up Ziva's head with his forefinger.

He slowly brought his lips to hers. They could both clearly feel the start of a change in their relationship. For a moment the air was charged with the thickness of love.

Ziva pulled away first, tears in her eyes, but not falling. She looked into Tony's hurt face. Ziva couldn't do it. She couldn't be with the man she loved, Tony leaned in to kiss her again, but she turned her face away.

"Not now, Tony. Not with death as an excuse. We should wait. See if you still feel the same way later." She explained to him gently.

"Why wait? We both know what we want!" He cried, anger and denial filling his previously empty eyes.

"Because Gibbs will kill us. Because you just lost the woman you love. Because all you want right now is to feel alive." Ziva yelled. She did not want to be having this conversation at the moment.

"You're right." DiNozzo said after a minute. His voice was quiet and his eyes empty again. Then suddenly the fire returned.

"I will find out who did this, Ziva. And I will kill them."

"I know. And I pity them. But not tonight. Now you need sleep. I will be here when you wake-up. I promise." She answered softly. She led Tony to his bed and laid him down. Then she, herself, collapsed on his couch.

Not exactly how she imagined her first night sleeping in DiNozzo's house. But her dreams were pleasant nonetheless. She sighed gently in her sleep.

Tony dreamt of gunshots and Ziva. He tossed and turned, still in his work clothes as he slept. His mind was trying to solve the puzzle that had emerged.

Who would kill Jeanne?

Why?

Was it someone trying to get to him or someone trying to get to the dead Frog?

Did he really love Ziva?

Even in his sleep, the last one seemed more important than the others. But still the answers were hidden, the true questions unknown. Tony had no doubt that to get the correct questions, and to uncover the answers, he would have to dive, head-first, into a web of lies.


	6. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I know. I'm sorry. I promised one chapter a day. But I was busy getting sunburned yesterday. Sorry. Comments anyway?

Present Time

Leon paced around the small room. His glare told Tony and Ziva that something was going to happen. Something big and something soon. He sat on his heels between their chairs, looking first into Ziva's eyes, and then DiNozzo's.

"Ah, true love. It really is a shame one of you has to die. Not both of course, just one for know." Vance said, turning himself into a classic cliche before continuing.

"Because you had to dig! You had to uncover the truth." He circled Tony and Ziva's chairs, like a predator stalking his prey. Essentially he was just that. A predator, and David and DiNozzo were his pray.

"That _is_  our job, Leon. It's why you keep us around." Tony sneered. Leon backhanded him and Ziva visibly flinched, despite her years of Mossad training telling her not to.

She cared too much for this man. The one who, only recently, had regained the ability to love her back. 'Yes, he can, he will, love me.' She had told herself in times of trouble. And now, sitting her reliving the worst time of her life with him, Ziva knew it had been true all along. He did love her, and would do anything to protect her.

"Enough of your comments, DiNozzo. This is not one of your movies. There is no hero. There is only the death that you will face alone, in this hole." Leon remarked.

"That is where you are wrong, Leon. Gibbs will find us. He always does." Tony spat at Vance's shoes, earning himself another slap.

"Ha. Not this time." Vance barked a laugh before leaving the room.


End file.
